Over the “World” worked 280 organizations under the auspices of 20 ministries and agencies. To the orbital complex consisted of the experimental module “Kvant”, primarily intended for research in the field of extra-atmospheric astronomy, the module “Kvant-2”, giving astronauts the opportunity to go into space, technological Crystal for growing crystals of various proteins and other optical module “Spectrum” for the study of Earth’s natural resources and the upper layers of earth’s atmosphere, as well as research module “the Nature”, designed for the weightless environment of very pure drugs.

The station was attended by 104 people from 12 countries, 42 of them were citizens of the USSR and Russia, and 44 representatives of the United States of America. The station was also visited by the citizens of Syria, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, France, Japan, great Britain, Austria, Germany , Slovakia and Canada. Here was a record of the longest human presence in space — it was set by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov stayed on the Mir over 437 days in 1884 and 1995. The station has conducted more than 23 thousand studies. Including it implemented a large international program, including the “Mir — Shuttle” and “Mir — NASA”.

March 23, 2001 space station was sunk in the Pacific ocean. This 125 tons burned in the atmosphere, and only 12 tons reached the surface and were sunk